city and guilds business exams

The City and Guilds of London Institute 2010 C1

English for Business Communications Level 2 8959-12-012 (EL-NBC 12)

Practice Paper 2

Candidates name (Block letters please)

Centre no Date

Time allowed: 2 hours (plus 15 minutes reading time during which no writing will be allowed). Answer all questions. All answers must be written in ink, typed or word processed. Your answers should be written on separate sheets of paper. Make sure your name appears on each sheet of paper used. Answers to all tasks will be assessed for language and content. Two tasks only will also be assessed for layout. This will be indicated on the task. The following items are permitted - bilingual/monolingual dictionaries - calendars - calculators

For examiners use only

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Task 4

Task 5

Total

20

20

20

20

20

100

8959-12-012 (EL-NBC 12) - 2 - Practice Paper 2

C2

SCENARIO

You are Personal Assistant (PA) to Ian Croft, Managing Director of Tutti Frutti, a company that imports and sells a wide selection of fruit. Their head office is at 29 Great Peter Street, RUDDINGTON, Nottinghamshire, NG11 6LL, UK. Tel: +44(0)155 945 6000 Fax: +44(0)155 940 5286 www.tuttifrutti.com Mr Croft is out of the office, but will return late in the afternoon, and has left you some work to deal with in his absence. His email address is: [email protected]


C3

Task 1 Action the note from Mr Croft. (Your answer will be assessed for layout.)

(20 marks)

OrganicallyGrownFruits

PA: I really think we should increase the range of organically produced fruit we sell, which means well have to import a lot more from overseas, so its probably worth our while finding out more about this company. Their leaflet does sound very interesting. Please draft a letter to them Ill sign it when I get back this afternoon see my notes for the information we need. Perhaps you could ask them about apricots, cranberries, nectarines and peaches it would be especially useful if they could supply those. Many thanks, Ian. Id be interested to know if

this increases the price. Please ask.

Organic agriculture is a system of farming practices that seeks to use natural methods of production. Its goal is to learn from and copy natural processes in order to produce the food we eat, while also making our farmers take better care of the land. Are they able to prove that this is true?

Organic farmers dont use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and weed-killers. Organic agriculture combines both old and new ideas and practices to produce healthy, tasty crops that are full of vitamins. Farm Fresh to You Inc sells high quality organic produce which we are able to deliver to many countries. You will find our organic label on apples, pears, garlic, and other commodities from USA all the way down to Argentina and Chile.

As they sent us this leaflet, Im assuming they also deliver to Europe, but can you ask them to confirm this?

Contact us for further details: Address: 23808 State Highway 16 Los Angeles California 95607 USA

Tel: +1 800 796 6009 Fax: +1 800 796 6091 www.farmfresh.com Email: [email protected]


C4

Task 2 Action the note from Ian Croft. (Your answer will be assessed for layout.)

(20 marks)

PA: Please send a memo yourself to Trevor Phillips. As our Sales Manager hell certainly need to be aware of potential problems with supply, so refer to Valeries email (although Ill forward it to him anyway so theres no need to repeat it all); just see my notes for what I actually want to know from him. Thanks, Ian.

Valerie Newton [[email protected]]

[email protected]

Stocks running low

Ian I dare say you remember asking me last week to report back to you on our stocks of organic and non-organic apples. Well, Ive just got around to checking on our stores here in the warehouse and have discovered that in fact we are running very low on organic apples we do seem to have sold rather a lot of them recently, which is, of course, good news. However, we still have plenty of non-organic apples in stock and we have ordered even more of them, which we expect to be delivered regularly over the next three months. I do hope we can sell some of them, otherwise I may have problems with storage. To the best of my knowledge, however, we have only ordered small quantities of organic apples for delivery over the same period. We were not sure how many we would sell, as this is the first year we have stocked them, but it does now look as if we will run out very soon. Perhaps you could let me know if this situation is likely to change. Best regards Valerie PS - Ill send you a spreadsheet with full details later on today.

Ask Trevor if he thinks we might be over-stocking on these?

Id like to know whether Trevor thinks these orders reflect estimated sales. Please tell Trevor that Ill want him

to give me a sales forecast within the next two days sooner if he can manage it!


C5

Mercantile Publishing Company Upsalagade 16

DK-2101 COPENHAGEN Denmark

Tel: +45 35 43 34 22 Fax: +45 35 43 34 24

QUOTATION

We are delighted to quote for next years monthly Transport Guides; invaluable to anybody connected with the handling of foodstuffs. All guides give advice and information on all aspects of the shipping of such goods, including regulations and advice on storage, refrigeration and mixing loads. Set* of Monthly Guides to Food Transport

Cost of set for one year

Cost of delivery to UK

TOTAL ANNUAL COST FOR SET

1. Fruit 2. Fish, Meat and

Dairy Products 3. Vegetables

1500.00 36.00 1536.00

*We regret we are no longer able to supply individual guides.

We look forward to receiving your order.

Task 3 Action the note from Ian Croft.

(20 marks)

PA: Weve bought these guides (1 and 3 only) for years theyre very useful (see my comments), but Mercantiles prices for this year are too expensive. We dont want the whole set either; we have no use for one on meat, fish and dairy products. Please draft a circular letter I can then send to three or four other publishers asking for their prices for the same sort of guides and see if theyll give a discount for buying two. Thanks, Ian.

Remember to ask how much delivery is, and to confirm they are relevant to importers in UK.

These contained worldwide regulations and we would want anything else we bought to do the same.

Youll need to ask how often they are published.


C6

Task 4 Action the note from Ian Croft.

PA: Ive attached the article Kate mentioned in her email and definitely want to take up her offer of replying to some of the points in an article of our own in Kates magazine. Some of the comments they make might be true of some suppliers but they are certainly not true of us. Could you please draft an article that I can send to Kate? Concentrate on my comments on the article and also point out how interested we are in organic produce (were committed to increasing our range) and the steps we are taking to ensure we offer our customers the best fruit available (eg always exploring possible new suppliers.) Dont forget to make sure you include sufficient information for anyone who may wish to contact us. Thanks, Ian.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Article about organic produce in The Weekly Times

Dear Ian Im sure you saw the derogatory article about organic produce in last weeks Weekly Times I know you are interested in selling organic produce, so wondered if youd like to write an article for our magazine in reply. Wed like to give our readers the opposing view, which Im sure is the one you hold. Im afraid we can only consider something under 200 words and need to receive the article by the end of next week at the latest I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards Kate Kate Dowell Editor Fruit Supplier Monthly Riverside House LONDON SWI8 9NG UK Tel: +44 (0)2078717797 Fax: +44 (0)2078719779


C7

Weekly Times exposes truth about organic food that must lead to a slump in the market.

Last week, the well-known news correspondent, Peter Wright, hosted a report on mainstream TV that probably surprised many viewers. It made the case that organic food is not necessarily healthier than conventional food and might actually be dangerous. It has generally been believed that organically produced food was far more nutritious, and whilst Mr Wright did not deny this claim, he did point out that the dangers of contamination may well outweigh any possible nutritional benefits.

Citing research he said was commissioned by CAB News, Mr Wright said that organic food seemed more likely than conventional food to be contaminated by bacteria. He also said that conventional produce does not necessarily have more pesticide residue than organic produce, contradicting one of organic foods primary selling points. Our tests, surprisingly, found no pesticide residue on the conventional samples or the organic, he said in the report.

Another disadvantage of organic farming he mentioned is the low productivity. With the highly developed chemicals and machinery now available, todays farmer is able to multiply his harvest many times. The organic farmers, however, use old-fashioned cultivation methods. The soil they cultivate is therefore prone to wind and water erosion. They cannot possibly cultivate enough crops to supply everyone, so even if more people did want to buy organic produce, they would be unable to do so. There is also, of course, the problem associated with importing fresh organic produce. There can, therefore, only be a very small market for

organically grown produce. This led to his next argument against organic farming: that organically produced food is expensive. The cost is very often fifty to one hundred percent more than traditional food, which is also putting off importers from buying it, claiming that prices are simply too high. While price premiums remain high, the market for organic produce is therefore unlikely to expand significantly. Yet another valid argument is that organic food is not always available. There is a reason behind that. The organic farmers grow crops in accordance to the season. Neither do they artificially grow any crop nor do they extend the life of the plant or use chemicals, synthetics or pesticides. Therefore, oranges will be found only in winter and mangoes only in summer. As a result of such seasonal shortages, many fruit importers have simply decided not to sell organic fruit any more. They appreciate why their customers believe organic produce to be less widely available, and more limited in range than conventional produce.

Finally, he claimed that customers are not willing to buy food that doesnt look appealing or have a reliable taste. Inconsistency is indeed another hallmark of organic food. Variations in animal diet, local conditions, and preparation make food taste different from batch to batch. Many customers reported that whilst the taste might be better than that of non-organic food, they did not buy organic produce because the size and shape of organic fruit and vegetables tends to be erratic and the fruit is less attractive. The market for organic fruit is therefore bound to slump.

(20 marks)

Ours is increasing all the time.

We import from cheaper producing countries in South America and Asia and we are cutting prices.

Ours is increasing all the time.

Our customers frequently comment on the healthiness, taste and freshness.


C8

Task 5 Action the message.

(20 marks) End of Examination

TELEPHONE MESSAGE MESSAGE FOR: PA WHILE YOU WERE OUT: Ian Croft Phoned: 9 MESSAGE: Ian called to ask you to draft an informal report for the Board for him. He said not to write more than 2OO words though. The Board just want to be up-dated on the sales of organic fruit. They want to know how successful weve been in selling each different type of organic fruit compared to the non-organic over the last three months. They are also interested in the overall picture ie total sales of non-organic and organic fruit and if theres any change in popularity this year compared to last year. He said you should have some statistics that give you all the information you need for the report. TAKEN BY: Peter Hughes

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